


An Old Fashioned Case of Haunting

by Small_Hobbit



Series: A Study By Ghosts [5]
Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-22 09:30:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22147300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Small_Hobbit/pseuds/Small_Hobbit
Summary: When Mrs Warrington reports noises from her basement, Sally suddenly has a feeling her ghostly friends are involved.
Series: A Study By Ghosts [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1154330
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14
Collections: Story Works





	An Old Fashioned Case of Haunting

**Author's Note:**

> Written for DW's Story Works "Paranormal" Challenge
> 
> Holmes, Watson, Lestrade and Hopkins are ghosts from the ACD era now living in modern times.

“Donovan, can you do me a favour?” The DI called out. “Can you go and see that daft old biddy, Mrs Warrington. She says there’s still activity in her basement, even though we’ve arrested the gang. Reassure her that she’s quite safe.”

“Yes, I’ll go,” Sally replied. “Given what’s happened, it’s not all that surprising she’s on edge.”

Sally picked up her keys and went to get her car. She groaned as she got near it. The ghostly form of Stanley Hopkins was waiting for her.

“What do you want?” she said quietly, having no wish for her colleagues to think she was talking to herself.

“I’ve been sent to get you,” Hopkins replied.

“Well, I have a call to make. I suppose I could come with you afterwards; it’ll be about time for my lunch break.” She thought and then said, “Unless that’s why you’re here. Where have you been told to take me to?”

She unlocked the car and Hopkins slid into the front passenger seat.

“Oh no!” Sally said. “You go in the back. I do not want to explain why I’ve driven into something because I was distracted by a ghost.”

Hopkins did as he was told, and then said, “22 Flaxman Road.”

Sally sighed. “That’s what I was afraid of.”

Sally drove to Flaxman Road, with Hopkins sliding around in the back seat looking out of the side windows at whatever caught his fancy. At least his head was opaque, so she was able to see out of the rear window, and she found him at lot less of a problem in the back than he had been in the front.

She parked the car and walked up the short path to number 22. Mrs Warrington answered the door promptly and invited her in.

Sally declined the offer of a cup of tea, and said, “I understand you still have concerns about your basement.”

“Yes, everything was fine for a few days and then I started hearing noises again. I know everyone thinks I’m making it up, but I’m sure there’s something down there. Would you like me to show you?”

“I think it would be better if I went down by myself. It would give me a better feel of things.”

Mrs Warrington nodded. “However you like.” She unbolted door to the basement and opened it.

Sally went through and closed the door behind her. “It’s okay,” she said. “I’ve brought my torch.”

Cautiously, she walked down the steps. Once at the bottom she said, in a sing-song voice, “Come out, come out, wherever you are.”

Dr Watson appeared.

“What is going on?” Sally demanded.

“It’s an old-fashioned case of haunting,” Watson said.

“But why?”

“That, my dear Ms Donovan, is because there are bodies under the floorboards.” Sherlock Holmes said as he materialised.

“And this was the easiest way to draw attention to them.” The ghostly Inspector Lestrade added.

“Whose bodies? The gang were involved in robbery and extortion, and we suspected they’d been involved in a couple of gangland murders, but I wasn’t aware there were any missing bodies.”

“A couple date back to about eighteen months ago, there’s another couple from ten to twelve years ago or thereabouts. And maybe three or four more from one hundred and twenty years ago, but I’d find it hard to be very specific about their dates,” Holmes said.

“Wonderful. Well at least those last few won’t be our problem. So how do you suggest I tell my boss?”

“You don’t need to uncover all the bodies yourself, do you?” Watson asked.

“Oh no. I just need to have some physical proof that there’s one body there.”

“Which means you just need to find an arm, or something,” Lestrade stated.

“Yes, that would be quite enough. But at the moment I have no reason to do so. I know there’s what you told me, but when someone asks, ‘why were you looking there?’ I need a plausible answer.”

“Would a suspicious stain do?” Lestrade continued.

“Yes, if there was one.”

“Hopkins!” Holmes called. “That’s your job.”

Hopkins floated over and emptied half a can of coke onto the floorboards.

“But that’s coke,” Sally objected.

“And it shouldn’t be there,” Watson said. “Which makes it suspicious.”

“Plus, once they’ve found the bodies, no-one’s going to question what sort of stain it was,” Lestrade argued reasonably.

Sally found a screwdriver in a corner of the basement and prised up the floorboard which had received most of the coke. As she had expected, underneath an arm was visible.

“Right,” she said. “I shall go and call this in. I’d offer you all a lift back to Baker Street, but I shall have to wait for the other officers to arrive and it might be some time.”

“Don’t worry about us,” Holmes said. “We’ll hang around and see what they dig up. I wouldn’t mind a closer look at some of the older skeletons.”

“Fair enough,” Sally replied. “I’m sure we’ll catch up later.”

“Do you want to finish the can of coke off?” Hopkins asked.

Sally shook her head.

“Okay. I’ll put it in the recycling then.” 

Sally opened the door back into the main house and stifled a grin as Hopkins slipped through with her, holding the coke can. She turned to speak to Mrs Warrington. “I’m afraid you were right,” she said. “I’m going to have to call some of my colleagues in.”


End file.
